Use of SLR for video

[Aidan Wilson]

Something I would suggest is the Elgato Turbo264 HD hardware accelerator (for 
Mac only at this point I believe). It's a USB dongle which contains a dedicated 
video card, effectively, and for this function it has three main advantages:

It takes the load off the machine's processor,
It speeds up the process considerably,
It actually does it, which is by no means guaranteed with software as it is.

We got one for Paradisec when we received some .mts files and when nothing else 
would work. It comes with software that plugs in to quicktime and also runs 
standalone. By memory you just plug the camera in, the software recognises it 
and offers all video files to be converted into uncompressed .mov, or gives the 
option to convert into .mp4 and/or compressed .mov, reduce size, specify 
start/end times, etc.

If you have .mts or .mt2s files that have been copied from a camera and are not 
in the original files structure, then this won't work (easily), but there are 
tools that will simulate the file structure (essentially there are some 
metadata files that are necessary for interpreting the file buried somewhere in 
the camera which no one would think to copy as well as the video files 
themselves - this is why mts is a really dumb file format), and 'burns' them to 
a disk image that the Mac will think is a mounted camera and will allow elgato 
to run. RevolverHD is one that we used (can't remember if we bought it):
http://www.shedworx.com/revolverhdmac

Elgato Turbo264 HD costs US$100, or there's a software only version (just 
slower, essentially) for $50, there's also a free trial version but it's 
limited to 3 minute files and will superimpose a watermark.

http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/Turbo264HD/product1.en.html

An expensive solution, but painless, and if you do a lot of video, it's quickly 
worthwhile.

-Aidan

-- 
Aidan Wilson

PhD Candidate
Dept of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
The University of Melbourne

+61428 458 969
aidan.wilson at unimelb.edu.au

On Sun, 29 May 2011, Anthony Jukes wrote:

> Hi Randy.
> One thing you can try is rewrapping the .mts files to .m4v with a free
> script as described here
> http://vimeo.com/groups/gh1/forumthread:232846
>
> After rewrapping, iMovie is generally happy enough to import the
> files. There doesn't seem to be any loss of quality as it's not really
> converting, just changing the container. It is very quick.
>
> Anthony
>
>
> On Sun, May 29, 2011 at 4:16 PM, Randy LaPolla <R.LaPolla at latrobe.edu.au> wrote:
>> Hello,
>> Before my recent fieldwork in NW Thailand I bought a Sony SLT-A55V (a very
>> high end digital SLR), and its paired mic Sony ECM-CG50 (a directional mic
>> that mounts on top of the camera). I was told by the salesman that it would
>> film for 29 minutes and then you could start again. It takes HD video of
>> amazing quality. It worked fine in the shop and in trials at home, but in
>> the village in Thailand it failed miserably, overheating after only 5-7
>> minutes (it was about 33 C in the shade). The manual does say that in 40 C
>> it will only last 5 minutes, and the 29 minutes is only in 20 C, but the
>> salesman never mentioned that, and I wasn’t aware of it until after I bought
>> it. So one point of this message is to warn anyone thinking of using an SLR
>> for video to think again. (Btw, in contrast a cheap Nikon Coolpix camera
>> that we had had no problem shooting 29 minute videos with clear sound in
>> that heat.)
>>
>> A second issue is the format Sony uses: I was warned about the proprietary
>> software and format that Sony uses, but assumed it wouldn’t be a problem.
>> Wrong again. The software they give you for working with the videos does not
>> work on a Mac, and the HD files created seem to not be openable by any other
>> software currently available on my Mac other than VLC (which only is for
>> viewing, not editing). From a check of the Web it seems iMovie’08 (which I
>> don’t have) and certain other types of software might be able to play them,
>> or convert them, but there are problems with some of them. Does anyone know
>> what is the best software for working with .MTS AVCHD files (ideally without
>> converting them, if possible)? (There is the choice to create MP4, but I
>> want to keep the HD quality if possible.)
>>
>> Thanks very much.
>>
>> Randy
>>
>> ---
>> Randy J. LaPolla, PhD FAHA
>> Professor (Chair) of Linguistics
>> La Trobe University
>> VIC 3086 AUSTRALIA
>> Tel.: +61 3 9479-6402 (RCLT) / 9479-2555 (Ling)
>> FAX:  +61 3 9467-3053 (RCLT) / 9479-1520 (Ling)
>>
>> RCLT: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/
>> Linguistics: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/linguistics/
>> The Tibeto-Burman Domain: http://tibeto-burman.net/
>> Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area: http://stedt.berkeley.edu/ltba/
>>
>